This weekend we are going to start our monthly face-to-face game. I'd like to do it at least every other weekend, but let's see if we can even manage the once a month gathering. I'll be running a Dragon Age session using the Core book. I was going to use the quickstart rules, but all the players bought the PDF of the core rulebook so I'll run with that.
Last night I was prepping the session at the bookstore and one of the things I do to help me learn a system is create characters. In this case NPCs. The book has a lot of good pre-made stat blocks included, but there are a quite a few NPCs I wanted to flesh out. So far I've made an elven apostate and a Antivan Wayfarer who is a ban (or knight) at Redcliffe. There are a few more I want done before Sunday.
I'm using the background of Dragon Age, I bought the two books from Dark Horse comics to help explain the history and of course I've been playing the hell out of Inquisition. I like the background, their take on mages and the ever looming threat of the BIG enemy, darkspawn.
What I intend to do is slice off a small section of the world, and as I mentioned already, it will include the Village of Redcliffe, and build an adventure sandbox around Redcliffe and the immediate area. I've got a general main adventure tumbling around in my head, but I want to build some side adventures, or options if the players don't bite on the main hook. I like giving my players the option on how they would like to die. I am generous in that way.So on my to-do list is, make more NPCs, sketch out the main plot, develop a few side stories, a few that connect with the main plot and a few that are independent, reread the combat and magic rules for the 12th time and then maybe draw up some maps if I have time.
If the game goes well I hope to run it on-line in a Google hangout in the future. I don't want all this Dragon Age knowledge to go to waste.
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Had so many charts and "random determination" lists... My game world had become a "living and Functional" thing... Yes , you could say that it took on a "Life" of its own.... (probably way too much "Detail"...) But, at the time , That was all that I had through the week to keep my mind occupied... and on weekends, we ran very long game sessions each weekend... And we usually got in over 15 to 20 hours of game play.... and I had spent all week , whatever free time that I had ... writing up the game world....)
ReplyDeleteby over doing and have a Mess that no one else could understand the complete "Overview" of it in its entirety )
... by over doing and creating All aspects of a new World.... is that what you meant by Falling into Thedas...???
and thank you good Sir for listing my "Crypt" in your side-bar...
that was very kind of you...
.... and the reason for all of this detail.... one of the players (who decided to spend the group's resting time "fishing", ask what kind of Fish did I catch... ) we were unable to answer... so we just named off a type... after that we broke the world down even further.... had to do much more studies on climate and wildlife...
and then incorporate that into my game-world... So it took over a year till my game-setting was to the point of a few dice rolls ("custom Random Determination charts") would create whole new adventures along with what we (as DM) had already written on the area and the group's "Adventures" .... thus giving even more "Side-Stories" and game "choices" to the players....
type very slowly ... but still tend to "ramble".... a great day to you and the "Happy Whisk", good Sir....
You are very welcome and a great addition to my blog roll. I'm enjoying learning the nuances of Thedas. Usually I create my own setting so its nice to have someone else to do the heavy lifting.
DeleteWe finally started out DA game this past Saturday. We had a couple of people who had to back out of this session, but the game went ahead, and despite some administrative stuff to finalize, we got a lot of play time in. I like the system a lot, and the world is a nice, grim alternative to most fantasy games.
ReplyDeleteVery cool Tom. I was just over at your blog and read your play post. I'll be gobbling those up as you write them. Have a blast!
DeleteWe just ran the Basic (1st edition) rules and Expansion sets... Then came more (2nd edition) and had to learn ... by third edition we told them that we were going back to the old (1st ed.) rules ... and would add if they found something in "Dragon" magazine as well as some rule changes from newer editions of D&D....
ReplyDeleteMy players seem content ... always glad to work with them .... "flexible" (as best as we could...)
You just never know what you'll find to read @ the Manor.
ReplyDeleteI never know what I find in the Manor most of the time.
DeleteHave fun with the game this weekend! I'm eager to hear how you like Dragon Age in play.
ReplyDelete